Atlantis Restaurant, Las Terrenas

Concierge.com's insider take:

What is François Mitterrand's former chef doing at a restaurant attached to a relative bargain of a hotel on Playa Bonita? It may be an unlikely spot, but Gerard Prystasz has turned the place into what many consider to be the top restaurant in the Las Terrenas area—and one of the most expensive. The menu ranges from elegant takes on the extremely local, like dorado with coconut sauce (of which just about every restaurant in town serves some version), to classic French, like beef béarnaise, and rack of lamb à la provençale. The best part, of course, is the setting. As you sit either in the restaurant near the beach or in the pavilion nearly on it, you get a meal full of elegance without the stuffy formality. It's amazing how good French food tastes with a side order of gentle Caribbean waves.